Known fuel systems having multiple fuel manifolds may include a flow divider valve which is used to sequence and schedule the fuel flow between various groups of fuel nozzles and/or between separate fuel manifold feeding such nozzles. The use of such a flow divider valve provides flexibility to better control the fuel spray in the combustion chamber from each of the groups of fuel nozzles fed by their respective independent manifold. Typically, such flow divider valves are configured such that they will open at a predetermined pressure which corresponds to a given fuel flow. Above this predetermined pressure, fuel is fed to the secondary manifold, whereas below this pressure fuel is fed only to the primary fuel manifold.
It is desirable to be able to bleed fuel from the primary manifold to the secondary manifold in order to ensure that the secondary fuel nozzles always remain primed, even at low burn flow conditions. However, at start-up, such a cross-bleed flow between the manifolds may prevent proper atomization of the fuel sprayed in the combustion chamber and is thus not suitable.